Business owners use many techniques to draw customers to merchant locations and to convince customers to make purchases. One technique is to offer the customer a credit card so that the customer does not need to use cash to make a purchase. The credit card may be a merchant sponsored credit card, one that is used only at merchant locations within that merchant chain, or a credit card that can be used across multiple unaffiliated chains. In addition, merchant owners will typically provide some type of discount or promotion that is tied to the customer filling out a credit card application. The customer will typically fill out a paper application for the credit card at the merchant location. The employee for the merchant at the merchant location will take the application and submit it to the credit card processor. The customer will then learn in a few weeks whether the application has been accepted. In certain situations, the customer may be turned down for the credit card. However, by that time the customer has already received the discount or promotion. In certain instances, the merchant will include in the credit card application the right to withdraw the discount or promotion if the customer is not approved for credit. Further, the customer will typically need to pay for the items purchased under the promotion immediately. Both of these situations are likely to result in a negative view by the customer towards the merchant, even if the merchant is not ultimately responsible for making the determination as to whether to extend credit to the customer.